TRANSPARENT APPROACH TO COSTING (TRAC)
INTRODUCTION FOR NEW STAFF
What is TRAC?
TRAC is the standard costing approach used by higher education institutions in the UK to calculate
the full cost of teaching, research and other activities.
The annual TRAC exercise re-presents the income and expenditure of the university across these
broad activity headings. This reallocation exercise relies substantially on an assessment of time
undertaken by academic staff.
Why do we need to do it?
Completion of the annual TRAC exercise is a mandatory requirement placed on the sector.
However, perhaps more importantly, the outputs of TRAC are used in the calculation of the full
economic cost (fEC) of research projects and directly affects the amount of funding the University
can recover from grants funded by the Research councils and Government Departments. It also
informs the level of funding requested from other research sponsors. Since its introduction, TRAC
has resulted in significant additional funding for research within the HE sector, helping to improve
the financial sustainability of research in UK HE. In addition, TRAC for Teaching Data is now being
used by HEFCE to inform the funding of teaching.
What do you need to do?
To meet the minimum national compliance standards for TRAC, all academic staff and certain
teaching and research staff are asked to complete time allocation schedules. At York, we have
chosen to request data for five nominated weeks during the academic year. Individuals will be
advised by the Management Accountant for TRAC before each of the survey weeks, and provided
with guidance to aid completion. Given the reliance placed upon the outcome of time allocation
surveys, it is crucial that the data provided by academic staff is as accurate and robust as possible
and submitted in a timely manner.
All academic staff within a department are surveyed in the same week and departments are
normally surveyed every other year. However if an individual is employed by two departments, then
it is possible that they will be asked to complete the survey each year.
Information provided by an individual is confidential between the individual submitting the return
and the Management Accountant for TRAC. Information is consolidated at department level before
being published.
More detailed information can be found on the University of York TRAC website
https://www.york.ac.uk/staff/finance/trac/